Colon: Expect Council To Be `Rubber Stamp`

SUNRISE -- Bill Colon`s bid to be mayor made room for a new face on the City Council.

But his loss on Tuesday to incumbent Larry Hoffman for the mayor`s seat removed the city`s most vocal and tenacious critic from city government.

Colon`s opponents said his combative, abrasive style cost him the election, but Colon said that was the only way he could bring the city`s problems to light.

He said the city lacked leadership, causing waste in city government that left the city open to scandal. Colon lost to Hoffman by a 7,500 votes.

Colon, who resigned his council seat to run for mayor, said the city would suffer without someone hounding the administration. He said the new City Council members were backed by the same political clubs that backed Hoffman, and that they would not fight the mayor.

``The new council will be a big, big rubber stamp,`` said Joe Rosen, a long- time supporter and adviser to Colon. ``Bill wasn`t afraid to speak out. Nobody controlled him. But (the newly elected members) had the political bosses behind them.``

Both Steve Feren and Roger Wishner won endorsements from most of the city`s politicial clubs, the clubs that Colon shunned for years. Feren, an attorney, will finish the last two years of Colon`s council term and Wishner unseated incumbent Bernie Weiselberg for a four-year term.

They will be sworn in at noon Friday.

``I feel sorry for the people, but they deserve what they`re going to get,`` said Colon, who sounded relaxed and not bitter the day after his loss. ``Whatever Hoffman puts before (council members), that`s it. There`s not one of them that`s going to speak out.``

But a few Colon supporters, and representatives of the political clubs, said the new council members should have time to prove themselves.

``I think they will work with Hoffman, but if they don`t agree with him, they will tell him,`` said Nancy Niewoonder, a Colon supporter who has closely followed the council in the past year.

``The new council won`t be as controversial, but I wonder if there`s going to be as many questions asked,`` she said.

Tillie Rothstein, president of the powerful West Broward Democratic Club that endorsed Hoffman, Feren and Wishner, said the new council will run better without Colon`s rhetoric.

``What makes people think that because clubs elect a candidate they control them? They don`t,`` Rothstein said. ``The new council will have healthy debate, not innuendo, not false statements.``

Feren and Wishner both said before the election they were not ``Hoffman men.``

``I think the people were looking for someone who can feel for them and make decisions for them,`` Wishner said.

After spending six years on the City Council, Colon said he would no longer be directly involved in city government. He said he`d probably only attend the council meetings to hear about issues that interest him.

``My function will be if I see something going on, if someone comes to me, I will go to the proper authorities,`` he said. ``But if the people wanted me as a watchdog, if they felt something corrupt was going on, they should have elected me.``